Trump will ‘watch out for the environment,’ says Nikki Haley while defending his decision on the Paris accord

Nikki Haley said that the US would work on environment issues but on its own terms.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that she had always known that the Paris agreement was burdensome for the US.

“The regulations from the Paris agreement were disadvantaging our companies. We know that.” Haley said. “I knew that as a governor. We know that now. The jobs were not attainable as long as we lived under those regulations. It wasn’t possible to meet conditions under the Paris agreement had we even attempted to do that.”

The first Indian American member of the Trump administration’s cabinet, Haley was talking to the CNN‘s Jake Tapper, on Saturday.

Haley said that the former US President Barack Obama did not strike an effectual deal. “The standards were set by President Obama and not passed through the Senate because the standards couldn’t have been achieved,” she explained.

Responding to Trump’s decision to dump the international accord, Haley said, “We’ve got a president who is gonna watch out for the environment. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. We are gonna continue to be a leader in the environment. The rest of the world wanted to tell us how we do it. We are saying ‘We will do it. But we will do it under our terms.’”

It is pertinent to mention here that in the year 2012 Trump denied the whole notion of climate change. He tweeted: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

However, on Thursday, while addressing a media conference at the White House, Trump said that there were no meaningful obligations for the world’s “leading polluters” and that it is time to “exit the Paris Accord.”

“I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States,” Trump said. “India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples but the bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.”

In his about 20-minute address, Trump mentioned India three times. He said that although India is permitted to increase its coal production, the US isn’t. “Think of it: India can double their coal production. We’re supposed to get rid of ours,” he stressed.

In response, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed his commitment to the climate change. Modi said on Saturday that he would go “above and beyond” the Paris agreement to protect the environment.